A FOXY Story!

[Donnyboy]

We live in an area of North Texas which is fairly heavily forested. We have a lot of wildlife living in, and traveling through our area. If seen from the air, it is easy to see large horse and cattle pastures surrounded by, but barren of trees. We have a state park and a large lake close to our house. It is an excellent habitat for many species of animals. Our property has been known as "Whip-poor-will Hill" since the area was first settled over one hundred years ago. We still hear the birds calling in spring and fall each year. If you keep your windows open on cool nights, the Whip-poor-will's make it easy to drift off to sleep.

Most nights, I take our large dog, and small dog outside for their convenience before they sack out for the night. Last night I took them outside about 10:00 p.m. I always have the small dog on a long leash to protect her from coyotes if she wanders too far from me. I carry a very powerful flashlight to scan the woods before letting them out to do their business. I also have a pistol in it's holster on my hip. The large dog took off running quickly for the woods. I was cclling her, but I couldn't see her. I turned the flashlight on and started scanning for her eyes. I saw her eyes reflected about two hundred yards away. I was surprised at how far she had ran in such a short time. I then saw a second pair of eyes much closer to me and I knew the second set of eyes belonged to my dog but I had no idea what the first set of eyes belonged to.
I turned the flashlight beam to the first set of eyes and noticed they were slowly moving towards me. I stood and watched the eyes as they got closer. I was fascinated because most animals run away when they are in the beam of a powerful light at night. Quite a few neighbors on other properties have reported sightings and signs of cougars recently. The animal turned broadside as it went around a tree, keeping it's eyes on the light; and I could see it's gray color and long tail. It was a gray fox.

I had no idea Gray Fox's are so brazen and will approach humans so fearlessly. I finally figured out the fox was approaching me to see if my small dog is as tasty as it looks from a distance. I started making a lot of noise to scare the fox away. He seemed to like noise as he continued to approach so I pulled my large pistol and fired it into the ground with no intent of harming the fox. He ran about fifty feet and stopped and started watching me and my dogs again. I took the dogs into the house and got my wife outside to see the fox. The fox lay down in the grass, always keeping us in it's vision. We finally went in the house and prepared for bed.

I'm much more knowledgeable about coyotes and wild hogs than Gray foxes. I did some research and discovered they are the most common fox in Texas, inhabiting the entire state. I also discovered they are one of only two species of canids which are arboreal with the ability to climb trees and sometimes den up in trees. It is a very interesting animal.

[VeggieGal]

I wonder if that fox has been around people in the past. Perhaps someone has fed it making it less wary around people. That does not sound like normal behavior. It is good to hear that your small dog is kept close and remained safe.

[bower]

I often see local news articles about foxes in parks and public places, asking people not to feed them.
They say it's quite easy to attract them and they lose their fear of people... but they are still a wild animal and can do you harm. They would not be safe around children, and they also are a reservoir of diseases that can affect your pets.
The disease issue is a caution, because one of those diseases is rabies, and is another reason that an animal might behave strangely. I once saw a stray dog in the late stages of rabies... it was really dazed and wandering around, although it also couldn't move very well at that point. So I think it could certainly affect an animal's behavior...

But it sounds like your fox was a healthy animal, so that is good news.
The fox that I've seen around my place is called a "cross fox", they are a mix of colors mainly black and silver. I'm glad to see them because they do keep down the population of small animal pests, including hares, squirrels and voles. On the downside, they dig up fish if I bury any in the garden. I have never seen any signs of friendliness in our local foxes. They run and hide if they see anyone.